


Limit

by Axiloci



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Body Horror, Gen, Horror, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-01 10:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20813780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Axiloci/pseuds/Axiloci
Summary: First attempt at horror. A spaceship crew takes up a mission to go to the very edge of the universe to find what's out there, if there even is an edge. It doesn't go well.





	Limit

**Author's Note:**

> i totally accidentally left a kudos on this in an effort of trying to figure out how the kudos system works. oops.

"Exiting Galaxy TQ-13R," the craft’s automated voice announced. TQ-13R, the furthest galaxy from the center of the universe. Out the window, this last, already distant collection of lights flew past, leaving an immeasurably large orb of stars behind us. Every single light in the universe, save our strong spacecraft, was in that orb.  
We were quiet as the orb of the universe receded at a speed that betrayed its size, our ship going what would normally be considered an impossible speed. We couldn’t be sure of the size of this trip, so the fastest pace was set. Our current technology couldn’t detect the limit of the surrounding space, after all.  
Our small crew honestly wasn’t anything special, but we were the only astronauts who volunteered to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We knew we could die on this journey, purely because we may never stop, after all. We had been a part of the same class throughout school and got to know each other intimately. A team of best friends: Mix, a tentacled biologist who tended to the garden, Umi, an amphibian engineer, Basil, our lanky, vaguely cat-like leader-psychologist, and me, Port, the human researcher-physicist. I usually feel a little useless, so I like to help out however I can.  
We had done an expedition together previously to an unexplored, potentially life-harboring planet, but this had an entirely different feel. We were a bit tense as the craft zipped through nothingness, unaware of what awaited us, if anything. At least on a planet there were rocks. It wasn’t dread, but we were uncomfortable as the universe dwindled away.  
Mix was the first to turn away from the window in order to tend to her plants. The rest of us kept gazing a moment longer.  
Basil and I turned to the controls to check that everything was in order, and, sure enough, it all checked out. We kicked back and let the ship carry us onward. It’d be a long while before anything interesting happened.  
Umi, after having double checked some systems, came over to us and leaned his head against the durable glass. “Do you guys think there’s even an edge?” he asked, a hint of sadness in his voice.  
“Maybe,” Basil responded curtly, looking away. He didn’t exactly want to be on this mission, but we stick together.  
“Perhaps we’ll find another universe,” I said half-jokingly.  
“Or new life!” Mix exclaimed, carried over to us by her tentacles. “I’d study the hell outta that.”  
“Life can’t exist with almost-zero energy,” Basil commented. “Aren’t you a biologist?” He glared at her; he tended to get nasty.  
“Spiteful, aren’t we! Yes, I know it isn’t possible, but I can dream.”  
Basil shrugged and closed his eyes, relaxing his body.  
Mix wrapped her long, tentacle like arms around me and my chair from behind. “Maybe we can make ourselves a life in whatever we find out there.” I reached up and back to hold her head. Umi rolled his eyes.

A week flew by and the tension faded to tedium. It soon became like any other trip as we flew thousands of lightyears away from the universe. Every once in a while we’d all collect at the back window to observe the universe that was becoming but a single, burning light. Everything else was pure black.  
We fell into routine: I helped Mix with the plants and even gained a bit of knowledge, Umi did regular checks of the ship, and Basil preformed psychological checks. It was a song and dance we’d learned in school during our exam “expedition.” It was really just to a planet reserved for the exam.  
We spent a lot of our time relaxing in the pilot cabin, which had our comfortable seats and a table we could set the chairs around. Card games, gossip, and drinks entertained us. Mix and I had a bit more _physical_ pleasure, though. 

A month had passed before I knew it. The universe was but a speck behind us. It was crazy to think the galaxies were slowly spreading into this vast blackness, trillions of cubic lightyears of absolutely nothing.  
Basil was a bit more irritable than usual. At first it was just a couple extra spiteful comments, then slowly it seeped into his almost permanent mood. On the thirty-second day after we set off, I confronted him about it.  
“You okay, Basil?” I asked innocently. “You’ve been very irritable.”  
He crossed his arms and opened his mouth to say something. He stopped, though, and a thoughtful expression crossed his face. “Perhaps you’re right. I haven’t acknowledged it, but I have been feeling annoyed by all of your company. More than normal, anyway,” he added with a chuckle. “I’m not sure why.”  
I put my elbows on the table and held my chin. “Homesickness?” I asked.  
He shrugged. “I’ll have to keep an eye on it and think about it.” And that was that.

Over the next few weeks, Basil didn’t exactly get worse, but he didn’t get better. He found in explanation in his irritability in the uncertainty of our mission, he said, but he continued acting this way. It was almost immature at times.  
Umi, meanwhile, was also developing odd behavior, which had exposed itself in some talks and his psychological checks. He was becoming pessimistic, one of his negative qualities already I noted. He kept talking about how futile this mission was, that there was nothing out there and we were just flying ourselves to oblivion. It put a real damper on our moods. He also mentioned how my relationship with Mix would fall apart, which I responded to with a sort of disbelief. Yeah, we hit some bumps, but he didn’t have to be an asshole if he believed that.

Something was definitely going on. A few days later, Mix had a complete breakdown, something she hadn’t experienced since college. It was completely unexpected and out of the blue. One of the leaves of her plants had started withering and she broke down sobbing and gasping, crying out that she couldn’t keep anything alive. I tried to comfort her, but she wouldn’t listen.

Why is everyone being such an asshole? Another week later and it feels like they’ve turned on me. Umi displays jealousy now for my relationship with Mix, Mix never wants to sleep with me now, and Basil has shut himself in his room to avoid us. It’s infuriating, really!

I want to punch Umi. So bad. Never before have I wanted to, but now every time I see him I feel sweaty and bellicose. He keeps trying to poke holes in my relationship with Mix. Mix, by the way, now constantly cries and I have to take care of the plants. Also, in the past few weeks, I’ve only seen Basil out of his room to grab food.

Yes, something is absolutely wrong. I awoke to find that, outside the back window, there was no longer the light of the universe. I called a group meeting immediately.  
We assembled at our table, tensions high. Mix was breathing heavily and the other two appeared uncomfortable. Couldn’t they just chill out for a moment!?  
“I don’t know what the hell is happening, but something isn’t right. The universe should still be visible.” I looked at the three of them. None of them responded in any meaningful way. I groaned angrily, threw a chair, and left them at the table.

The blackness outside started to feel more… intense. I didn’t speak to the others about it. In fact, over the last week or so, I haven’t spoken a word to any of them but Mix, who is still a nervous wreck. Her nonstop whining and sobbing is aggravating and dreadful. I constantly wish she’d just shut it.

It came to me suddenly that it wasn’t just black outside, it was _misty_. The black mist was somehow seeping into our ship, perhaps through the atom-sized cracks. We all noticed it, none of us brought it up.

Mix went into hysterics upon seeing one of the plants dead, thanks to my poor gardening. She screamed bloody murder and collasped to the floor. I yelled at her to shut up, close to snapping.  
“It’s in my mind!” she screamed, holding her head in her hands, tears streaming. “I feel it! Eating my thoughts! Squirming! It wants my body!”  
I kicked her hard in the gut and shouted “shut it!” She screamed at me in pain.  
I left her and slammed my door, engaging the soundproofing. Her wailing died away. The black mist was thick in my room.

All had been quiet for a while. I got up to water the plants, our only source of food. My head felt fuzzy as I idly gave them their daily meal. I was interrupted when my foot slipped on something, causing a loss of footing. I fell to the ground, smacking my head. There was a warm, sticky liquid covering the floor where I landed. Through the mist I saw the lifeless face of Mix, stained with tears.  
I screamed and rushed to my feet, utterly confused about what happened. I fought down my stomach when I registered the carnage. Her chest was violently ripped open, her guts spilling out. Her face was lacerated, like someone had gouged into it with a knife. Her throat was bitten into, her throat torn out, leaving a gaping hole. Thick blood coated the floor, drying and caking. I realized the plants around her mauled body were splattered with blood.  
I retched as her lifeless eyes bore into my soul. I felt as if I had done it. I could imagine myself pinning her to the floor, digging a knife into her abdomen. Tearing out her entrails. Screams.  
Then I saw him. Umi. The black mist shrouded him, but I could see what he was doing. On the other side of the room, hunched over and _feasting_ on her bloody, cut tentacles. I emptied my stomach when he gazed over at me. His mouth was messed with blood and viscera. A piece of meat clung to his slimy lips. His eyes weren’t his. He smiled. _God, how he smiled!_  
I couldn’t speak or move. My breath rushed in and out of me as I stared, unable to grasp the nightmarish situation.  
He noticed my lack of words. “You didn’t give her to me, so I took her!” He howled with sick laughter, his voice laced with jealousy.  
I stumbled backwards, my head feeling light. When the adrenaline kicked in, I ran to Basil’s room and began pounding on the door. It wouldn’t open so I forced it open, nearly ripping my fingernails as I dug them into the small crack and pulled, all the while Umi howled in the black.  
I should not have opened the door. Basil lay on the ground in the center of the misty room. His chest was torn into like Mix’s, but the knife was still in his hand. His throat was sawed into. His other hand was dug into his chest, trying to tear his heart out. I threw up what was left in my stomach.  
A primal rage began building inside me. I pried the knife from his cold, bloody hands. I felt like I’d pass out. The knife was colder than him, and it felt like it weighed twenty pounds.  
I stumbled out of the room and walked over to Umi. He had resumed eating Mix’s poor, disfigured body. He was hunched over, oblivious to my presence.  
Self defense didn’t cross my mind as I plunged the knife into his back, running it along his spine, splitting him open. He screamed as blood gushed out before collapsing. He was dead before the knife touched him. I didn’t care, though, and I continued ripping him apart, my voice becoming hoarse the more I screamed curses. The sound of squelching innards made me gag, but I couldn’t stop. Tears streamed down my cheeks until they couldn’t, until he was nothing but blood and guts and bones. My heart pounded in my ears.  
I stumbled to the window. I saw my reflection. My face and hair were stained with blood, mixed with wet tears. Blood dripped from my hand and knife. I was gonna be sick again.  
Then I saw it. Movement, at first, out in the mist. Something huge. It set off fear in the back of my mind, unsettled me. I squinted out the window. The longer I stared, the more intense my fear became until I was motionless. Paralyzed, rather. Without warning, my vision filled with a massive yellow eye, pupil just a slit.  
I immediately broke down, weeping. The eye continued staring at me, and I physically couldn’t drag my gaze away as it picked apart my thoughts. It knew everything in my brain. It was taking it from me. I knew now why Mix had been screaming before. It wasn’t physically in me, but I could _feel_ it wriggling just underneath my skin. It was painful to impossible lengths.  
This monster had sown the seed of chaos into our crew the moment we left the invisible boundaries of the universe. This was its territory. We had gone beyond the limit of safety.  
Then everything I knew was gone.


End file.
